One of the most underreported and not accounted for demographic of people affected with Covid 19, aka Coronavirus, is the prison population. Including the guards and medical staffs that work in these facilities and most importantly, the inmates that are at these places. It is to my understanding that not all visitations have been halted for inmates. Additionally, you have staff personnel who go home and interact with the word daily and then have to come to work and interact with inmates. That means there is high risk for infection and an even higher risk for widespread outbreak because of the close proximity that these inmates must live in day to day.

I’m learning more and more about these individuals and their situations and it’s quite sad and pathetic. There are inmates nationwide that are now catching this virus and it’s spreading and the guards and staff are contracting this virus as well. In one Clayton County, Georgia transitional center, they have had their first positive test for Covid-19, but the response is one that to me is less than humane and it’s frankly an embarrassment. These men are continued to forced to live in even tighter confines. They have a mask, and they’re still sequestered 4 to 6 per living quarters. Not to mention, because it’s Friday and it’s Good Friday prior to Easter, they have no personnel on hand for the to lodge a complaint about the living situation amid a positive Covid-19 test.

Yes, I understand many don’t have much sympathy for the inmates in prisons and transitional facilities across America, but come on man, they’re fucking humans too. They don’t deserve to be sitting ducks, waiting for this virus to just spread like wildfires. They should have the same safety and protection protocols that we’re imploring in every day society. Maybe it is time to consider letting the nonviolent, nonintrusive inmates out, under some sort of early release program. Let them be home and safe and away from the shit of the prison. And, if you have less inmates in the prison you have more room to spread out the ones who’re left that can’t go anywhere. These are extreme times and they’re calling for extreme and unusual methods to get resolved. We need to consider our prison inmates that are in harmful and dangerous situations because they aren’t being properly care for or attended to.

I know that to some this is a controversial stance to take, because many believe that they shouldn’t be treated as human equals to the outside world because they’ve committed offenses against humanity or society. And while I can completely understand and agree with that sentiment with certain individuals, they are still human beings that need their basic rights protected and one is a protection of self. I also would urge many of you who don’t see this as a human rights issues, because you see these folks as thugs or criminals or gang bangers or whatever other term you have given them, to consider for a moment that all of us are one mistake, one bad interaction away from being right where they are. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as so holier than thou, we aren’t and the moment we realized that life’s obstacles can be just as big a determinant in what we do and the choices we have to make when those obstacles hit. Lets protect us all.

Talk back to me America